2005 February Newsletter

Columbia Pacific News Letter Columbia Pacific AFS Hosting 2005 ************************************************************************ 2005 Columbia Pacific Hosting Season is upon us. We had a great turn out for our First Hosting Kick-off and came away with enthusiasm and small tasks we each could complete to reach our hosting goals. February 2005

Some of the ideas that were generated: Speak AFS every chance you get; encourage our students to nominate families; distribute AFS flyers everywhere you go—bowling, dentist, doctor, library, bookstores, community bulletin boards, social gatherings; call families who have been interested in the past and new families you think might be interested—neighbors, business associates, church friends. We would love to encourage you to be part of our Hosting Team this year. Please join us at the Second Hosting Kick-off Wednesday, March 16th 6:45 to 9:00 PM. The meeting will be held at West Hills Unitarian Fellowship, 8470 SW Olsen Road (between Garden Home and Hall Blvd on the east side of the road about half-way between) Please RSVP by March 13th, to [email protected] so we can plan for materials and refreshments. This will be a chance for the Portland Metro Volunteers and outer West and Southwest Volunteers to come together and plot our course for the coming season. We will be distributing materials; reviewing selection and application process (there are some new tighter rules regarding paperwork and volunteer registration for liaisons. We’ll have many more bios available and we will be talking strategy for getting the job done by June 16th. Please come share your ideas and enthusiasm! Our Commitment for this year is: 53 (plus however many teachers we feel we can and want to support.) We have placed three Winter Arrival students; two YES students from Malaysia, Nurul and Faiz and a Chilean, Juan Pablo, or "JP." Please welcome them! That leaves 50 students to find homes for. We can do it! The selection process for students is the same as it has been for the last two years, with a couple of new rules. New bios are Area Team Assigned on Wednesdays and the Northwest has decided we will have no Regionally Available students. So the students are Area Team Assigned in a round-robin fashion. We have a week to Community or Family place the students from Area Team Assigned. If you or a designated "chapter Hosting coordinator" want to help with reviewing and selection of bios, please let me know so I can make sure you have the proper access for AFS Online. I need help choosing the students who will come to Columbia Pacific! This year we will need all liaisons assigned and registered and all host family paper complete, including school guarantee, before the student can be linked to a family. Once the student is linked, it initiates the natural family notification process and we don’t want families and students receiving incorrect information. We’d also like to draw your attention to the Host Family Finding Incentive that the Area Team has implemented. The students have all received nomination forms and hosting brochures with encouragement to nominate families of friends and even teachers. The students with the most quality leads will receive a monetary reward. The Field Managers of the West have come up with a Hosting Proposal that we will work toward implementing. Please see pages 5 & 6.

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Photo Gallery and Hosting News Student photo Gallery

HOST FAMILY CORNER Q. How often should I allow my student to call her natural family? A. AFS recommends that the ideal way for your student to be in touch with her family is to keep in touch weekly by mail and to make calls only on special occasions such as birthdays or special holidays such as Christmas. Calls of no more than once a month of about a half hour in length would be the next best choice. Calls that occur more frequently are in danger of causing adaptation difficulties. Q. A.

What about use of e-mail and chat lines? AFS recommends that participants send a general email to family and friends once a week, making it more similar to a letter, and that they should limit the amount of time that is spent writing email as well—one and onehalf hours once a week at the most should be the limit. Chat lines should be avoided.

TAX TIME – $50 DEDUCTION FOR HOST FAMILIES Public Law 86-779 of the 86th Congress section 170(g), permits you to deduct up to $50 a month for the time your AFS participant is living with you. The deduction is considered a charitable contribution. A copy of a form entitled “Host Family Income Tax Deduction Form,” which documents your participation in AFS as a host family, should have been mailed to you with your Welcome Packet. Call your cluster leader if you need a copy of this form. CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Dan Ward, who became a new grandfather on Saturday afternoon, January 22. His daughter, Chris, gave birth to Shaela Nicole at 1:00 p.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., and was 19 inches long. Dan, a former host dad, is a volunteer helper at Camp Adams, arrival and departure, and wherever else he is needed. Chris is also a volunteer.

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Student News TIMBERLINE LODGE The following two articles were submitted by our two Russian FLEX student, Kseniya and Jane. For all of you AFSers who went on the ski trip and didn’t study up on the history of Timberline, here are their reports on Timberline Lodge’s history. “On June 11, 1936 Timberline Lodge was built by hand, by unemployed crafts people, hired by the Federal Works Projects Administration. The survey was made on the site of 14 feet of snow, during the spring of 1936. The conditions were very hard, but the workers were paid very well and the morale was high. The work was done in an amazingly short time. The dedication by Franklin Roosevelt was in September, 1937. In 1978 Timberline Lodge was declared a National Historic Landmark. Its evolution as a site of Northwest Craftmanship continues.” By: Kseniya (Russia)

Construction of Timberline Lodge ”On June 11, 1936, there was a project started unique to America. Timberline lodge was built completely by hand, inside and out, by unemployed crafts people hired by Federal Works Projects Administration. The building is a tribute to their skills and to the government which respected not only their physical needs but also their spirits. The survey was made on the site of 14 feet of snow during the spring 1936. For 3 months workers cleared the area under the snow. The conditions were very hard, but workers were paid well and the food was good too, and the morale was high. They were able to finish the project during spring of 1936, which was long and mild, before the worst of the old weather. Most of the work was done in an amazingly short time. From the first drawing made in early 1936, to the dedication of the completed lodge by Franklin Roosevelt in September 1937 only 15 months elapsed and there were no major accidents during the construction. In 1978, Timberline Lodge was declared a Natural Historical Landmark. It was an evolution encouraged by Friends of Timberline, the US Forest Service and the hotel and ski area operators. Northwest artists continue to contribute art and craftwork to the lodge.” By Jane Trachomova

Maria Caicedo – Columbia – “Last January 19, I was part of a play in my school. I played the character of Ellis, who is the owner of a bar called The Alibi Club. Ellis is a pretty tough girl. The name of the play was The Course of the Starving Class.”

culture and religion. Wally also sang and performed traditional Filipino dances. Wally helped dispelled some myths about the Muslim culture and gave some valuable information about life in the Philippines.

Luis Mesa – Venezuela –“I am applying for 10 universities. I’m also taking 4 AP classes at the same time. I am playing soccer for the school term and a club team called PCU, which is one of the top teams in Portland.” Kristine Hommersand – Norway – “Last weekend was Winter Ball at my high school, St. Helens High. It was supposed to be the weekend before, but because of the ice storm, it got cancelled. When it got cancelled, I was really bummed, but luckily, I only had to wait one week because they postponed it, so I was excited. Another week the Winter Ball was perfect. I’ve never been to a formal dance before and never had a formal dress on either, but I think I did good. I had the time of my life, and now I can’t wait for prom!” Nurul Fathiah Mohd Aminuddin – Malaysia – “I’m Nurul FathiahMohd Aminuddin and I’m 17 years old. I’ve been in Portland last week and I do not go to school yet. I am the eldest in my natural family, but I’m the youngest in my host family. I’m from Malaysia which is in Asia. People in Asia have different races and religions, but still they can live in peace and harmony. I love to swim and read novels. When I grow up I want to be a lawyer.” Noemi Serdino sang soprano in the Parkrose High School Holiday Choir Concert on December 13. Mariana Vargas (Mexico), along with Lara G (Iceland), and Mao Oglihara (Japan), volunteered at the Gales Creek Camp Dinner & Auction on November 20. Mariana’s photo appeared twice in the latest edition of Greater Northwest Community, a publication of the Independent Order of Foresters. YES student Norodin Pangilan “Wally” (Philippines). Wally received one of the Principal's awards for the month of November. His US History teacher nominated Wally for the outstanding presentation to an auditorium of several classes and teachers, on the contrasts of the Filipino Families and Schools with the United States and the tenets of the Muslim

Noemi, Carolin, and Lucrezia holding platter of lentils and zampone, a traditional dish for New Year’s.

Compliments go out to Noemi Serdino, Lucrezia Scattu (Italy), and Carolin Aderhold (Germany) for their culinary talents. Noemi and Lucrezia prepared some traditional Sardinian dishes and Carolin made two delicious German cakes for a New Year’s Eve Party held at Bernice’s. The menu included lasagna, ravioli, zampone, special meats from Italy, and bread with bruschette. Many hours (3 days) were spent making the homemade pasta and preparing the meal. Andy Falconeri – Italy – “Before this year in Tillamook, they didn’t have any soccer activity, but this year in the high school, we have exchange students who really like soccer, so we almost forced them to make a soccer club where we practice (3 days a week), and right now more than 30 people are involved and we have a lot of fun!!”

Carolin’s cakes

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Student News VISIT TO AM NORTHWEST On December 30, Maggie Frieske and Claire Floyd took our two FLEX students and Mariana Vargas to AM Northwest and to the Multnomah County Court House where they were joined by Bernice Schuchardt, Lucrezia Scattu and Noemi Serdino. Judge Jan Wyers, a former AFSer spent some time visiting with them in his chambers.. “It was a great experience for me. I always wanted to be on TV, or see what it is really like. The day before I watched this show at home, but it looks and feels very different when you are you are part of the audience. It was very interesting to see all the cameras and lights, and how the anchors behaved during commercial breaks. It just amazed me how people who work on TV stations put this all together. I really enjoyed being there and I had a lot of fun. For me (girl from a small Russian town), it was very exciting to be on American TV!!! Thank You.” Kseniya Vizerova, FLEX student from Russia

breathing but this is their job and I understand it. I mean, it's the same in the country I am from and I bet in all other countries, it's just not the kind job I really like but I like the results, the fact that they are famous and pretty professional in the sphere they work. And they are all funny guys and it was fun to talk to them and to listen to them.” By: Jane Trachomova, FLEX student from Russia

ASHLAND TRIP – AN UPDATE May 7, 8 & 9 First of all, we are sorry to say the trip has been filled.

THE SKI TRIP …AND WE HAD SNOW Thanks goes out to Ron and Myke Jagow for providing another fun weekend at the mountain for 45 students. And thank you to someone up above for providing snow.

Backstage tour tickets are on sale now. The date for the backstage tour is May 8 and the tour lasts about 2 hours. Marilyn says she has done it and it is quite fun and interesting. If you want to order the tickets, call 541 482-4331. There are only 24 tickets available and the cost is $8.25 for adults and $5.50 for youth ages 6-17 yrs. You must order these tickets yourself by calling the number listed above. We also need to sell more candy to make enough to pay for the hotel room. Only those who are helping sell candy will get to take advantage of the money we earn. Otherwise, you must pay your share of the hotel, food, etc. If we do not make enough on the Valentine candy, we may have to do Easter candy. Give Bernice a call at 503 775-4161 or Ron Combs a call at 503 777-8117.

“Today, on December 30th, I'm, Jane Trakhomova, FLEX exchange students have been at the AM Northwest program provided by KATU television. That was my first time, my first experience connected with American television. I was really excited before probably because of that I am going to be showed on TV, but later I realized that it is just a great opportunity to be in the studio, to listen to the speech of real American Anchors. I kind of enjoyed it, because some moments were really hilarious but actually it looked like it looks on TV for me, it was diplomatic, unnatural and kind of fake. Sometimes it seems kind of weird for me, because the anchors, they didn't really care what kind of people they're talking to and interrupt somebody at the moment of

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A special thanks goes out to our ski trip drivers! As late as Friday night, our ski trip organizers were in a quandary as to whether they should cancel the ski trip or go ahead with it as planned…the decision was to take a chance and proceed. Saturday afternoon at orientation we got the good news that it was snowing at Timberline and that Timberline had 4 new inches. Sunday was a beautiful day on the mountain and there was enough snow to ski. As usual, Myke and Ron served their delicious homemade spaghetti, cookies, and a hearty pancake breakfast. Good job, Greg Kott, for coordinating this outing! CONGRATULATIONS to Greg & Bonnie Kott on the birth of a baby boy on February 9.

Narodin (Wally) Pangilan from the Philippines in his native dress, while practicing for his presentation for Skyview High School during International Education Week. Wally sings tenor in the jazz and concert choir at Skyview High School in Vancouver.

Hosting Information WESTERN STATES HOSTING PROJECT

Dear Friends, From visiting with many of you last weekend during our planning session at the Hosting conference and from what we have learned as a staff, we would like you to join us in a pro-active hosting effort. Betsy, Damayonti, and Floyd met and want to collaborate with you on a Western States Hosting Project. We have met with our field teams and would like to share with you our ideas. We are also going to ask something of you. We cannot move on until we have some very important information from you. We feel that if we can do this now we will be done by June 16. This in no way would replace what you already do as a team. We have set benchmarks as follows for placement: April 1: 50% of our students in permanent families May 15: 75% of our students in permanent families June 16: 100% of our students in families Because our partners are notified directly now when we input any information, we must use real families who are intending to be a permanent or welcome family. Our goal is to have all students in permanent families with completed paperwork by the time they arrive, unless it is for a vacationing permanent family or other such reasons. FEBRUARY: Information gathering and targeting those we have in the pipeline. Each coordinator will be sending you a complete list of all your Form A's now in the system. We ask that by Feb. 15 you get back to your coordinator with a status on each Form A and how you want us to deal with it. Some teams do not want applications sent directly, others do. As soon as we mark a family as viable they are sent an application and the hosting coordinator gets the volunteer part. Keep in mind that just because a family gets an application does not mean they will become a host family. They are an "applicant" and not a host family until we have the entire application and an assigned registered liaison (which could change later) We will also be sending Form A's to the hosting coordinators as soon as we receive them . Our IT department is designing an easier way to get them to you without our having to copy all the information and put it into an email. We will be sending a mailing to each lead we have generated since September 1 whether it has a hosting interest or not. This mailing will be addressed "to the parents of" and include a letter explaining that their child was in a school presentation, a fake bio sheet, and a Form A with directions to return it to the office. This mailing will go out by Feb. 21, 2005. Each of the managers is taking one part of that mailing. Right now in the Southwest we have nearly 5000 such leads with more coming. In order for us to target our calling we need something from you. Attached are WORD and EXCEL documents that have tables for school information. Feel free to use either one. We would need this by Feb. 23 so we can begin to give our info center advisors targeted areas for calling. We are also going to input this information right into our new schools module. We realize that for some of you this might seem redundant, but for SH we ran into problems as we did not know which schools were open to us. These documents should be sent to Floyd only as he is coordinating hosting. Please include not only currently hosting schools but any other schools you feel would host AFS students.

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Hosting Information By Feb. 28 we will be mailing a nomination letter and forms to every host and natural family from this year, plus our students going abroad in 2005 and our hosted students. We will return these nomination forms to the hosting coordinator in each team. IF your team is already doing this, let Floyd know and we will skip your team. By gaining nominations, we have an opening for our initial calls. We want this to be a more formal request. One team has been giving tee shirts, another a monetary reward if a hosted student recruits a given number of host families. Being "nominated" holds a special value and we feel we have not done this in a targeted and consistent manner in the past. Here is an idea from the Northwest: During their mid-year orientation they will be giving all students "Host Family Packages" which include hosting brochures, Form As, host family applications etc. The team is holding a contest with their students where the student who returns the most Form As that convert to host families wins $100. Assuming that the budget allows, or perhaps that you are able to award an equally motivating prize, this would be a great way to encourage students to speak about AFS and to recruit families. Hosting truly needs to be a group effort: one person can only cultivate so many contacts. Potential Host Families must be cultivated by the whole team. MARCH: Continuing the process Cooler emails will be sent to all our school presentation leads by March 28. We are working with marketing to send targeted PR information to all schools from the list that you have provided us in the Feb. 23 school information. We feel that targeting schools we know will host our students is a better use of our time. The deadline for doing this is March 21. On March 31 we will assess where we are and move forward on some contingency plans if our benchmark is not met. With a solid volunteer-staff partnership we know we can meet the goals of the NW and SW by June 16 and reclaim our summer and have some excited families and students (and very happy volunteers and staff). Please feel free to share any other ideas you might have with your coordinator. Floyd will be working with Betsy and Damayonti on a regular memo to report our progress with the project outlined above. JUNE 16, THAT'S THE DATE WEST HOSTING WILL BE DONE WITH PLACEMENTS FIRST RATE! Betsy, Damayonti, and Floyd Field Managers for the West 1-800-876-2377

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Misc. News AFS-USA: Contributing to Tsunami Relief Efforts By: Alex Plinio/UNY/USA/AFSIP Posted: 01/11/2005 AFS-USA extends its deepest sympathies to the millions of people who have been affected by the tsunami that devastated Southern Asia. We have confirmed that all AFS-USA Participants hosted in Thailand are safe. AFS-USA does not have any participants in any other of the countries in the region. At this moment, AFS-USA is not aware of any Thai, Indonesian, or Malaysian participants studying in the United States who have lost members of their immediate families. We offer our thoughts and prayers to all who had family members or friends affected by this crisis. The AFS community is making a difference. We are very proud to report that in communities around the country, AFS-USA Exchange Students, Host Families, Returnees, Volunteers, and Staff are leading and participating in local activities to raise funds for relief efforts. For example, AFS Exchange Students in California who are from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines have set a goal to raise $50,000 from their community of Sonoma Valley in one month's time, and are being supported by their high school and AFS Volunteers. In Wood River Valley, Idaho, AFS Exchange Students, Host Families, and Volunteers spent New Year's Eve raising more than $6,500 to contribute to relief efforts. These are just two of the many activities around the country that are happening with the help of people who are connected to AFS. I know that many of you are wondering where to send the monies you raise or your own personal contribution. In that regard, the following websites may prove helpful. Each site lists reputable organizations that are accepting donations. - American Institute of Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org) - Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) - BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org) Good luck with your fund raising efforts! Sincerely,

Alex J. Plinio, President

Rustam Kocher wished to share this message from Divan Vasudevan, last year’s AFS/YES student from Malaysia.

”Dear all, As 2004 draws to a close (well, it already has over here ;) I cannot help but reflect on what has been a truly, truly fantastic year for me personally. Getting involved in AFS and being chosen to go to the US and meeting all you wonderful people has been a blessing for me. Sometimes, when I think back to the time when I almost rejected my AFS offer, I thank God (and my mum) for pushing me to accept it, for if I had indeed rejected it, I just.. well.. it's kinda hard to put into words what a loss that would have been, which is why now I am so grateful for having been given this once in a lifetime opportunity.. What I really wanted to say is a plain and simple "Thank you". I know it might not sound like much, but it is from the bottom of my heart and if not for you guys, my AFS experience would never have been the same. 2004 has been an extremely memorable year for me and I will never, ever forget this year. I will always cherish and remember your love and friendship. Thank you once again, for everything, the good and the not so good (but memorable nonetheless ;). The times that I spent with all of you will always remain fresh in my memory. Here's wishing you all a very happy new year, and may this new year bring with it everything that you wish for. Good luck, and all the best.

Love always, Divan ps. Let us do the best we can for the victims of the tsunami tragedy, no matter how small it may seem.”

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AFS COLUMBIA

PACIFIC Bernice Schuchardt 4806 SE Long Portland, OR 97206

SAVE THE TREES AND POSTAGE Want electronic newsletter? E-Mail Bernice at [email protected] Want souvenir/scrapbook hard copy snail mail? E-Mail Ron Combs at [email protected] Check us out for more information and the newsletter on the Columbia-Pacific website: Http://www.afscolpac.org

The Calendar THE CALENDAR

March 5 March 13 April 1 April 10 May 7, 8, 9 May 14 June 4 (Sat.) June 5 (Sun.) June 26

Vancouver-Battle Ground fund-raising dinner. Contact: Mary Sisson e-mail [email protected] IOF Bowling, Four Seasons, Hillsboro. Contacts: Pam Bartel (360) 892-6178; Ron Combs (503) 777-8117; or Bernice Schuchardt (503) 775-4161. Newsletter Deadline IOF Bowling, Portland. Contacts: Pam Bartel (360) 892-6178; Ron Combs (503) 777-8117; or Bernice Schuchardt (503) 775-4161. Ashland Trip (Shakespeare).Contact:Marilyn Hays (503) 665-2830 [email protected] Orientation - Required – Time and location to be announced. Starlight Parade, contact Christine Stevens.503-682-3638 More info in next newsletter. Portland Zoo, contact Rustam Kocher. 503-356-9308 More info in next newsletter. Departure – Lent’s Park. Students will receive letter.

HELP……We have 50 boxes of See’s Valentine Candy left. We will sell them at $3 a box to cover the cost and still give us $1 profit. (Regular price was $4 a box). Contact Ron Combs, 503 777-8117.

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